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It's not just treated negatively by elites, but I think that's very straightforward. Because a biological or chemical explanation for behaviour, especially such a simple one, throws a pretty big wrench into the moralistic and individualistic worldview that underpins our Western societies, in particular in regards to crime or intellect.
If you accept the, from a scientific point, very obvious observation that a bunch of chemicals in your drinking water can turn you into an idiot or a criminal you just about undermine most stories of self-earned merit or responsibility we are being fed in our mother's milk and that justify bringing the hammer down on said inner city youth.
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The point they are making is that selection bias in which studies get published and which get suppressed can fool us (and may have done so) into believing an effect is real that isn't, or into thinking an effect is much larger than it is. Forget about which study this is and look at the point they are making on its own. Is there bad science going on here?
> but the mass media reaction to it just shows how much is wrong with our society
There is a whole other branch of mass media that desperately wants the lead-crime hypothesis to be not just true but the only reason for the crime rate falling in the 90s. Why? because it's much preferred over the alternative answer: Roe vs Wade. That side of the mass media is very aggressive in defending the lead-crime hypothesis.
Good discussion on the subject here: https://freakonomics.com/podcast/abortion/
(Replying to PARENT post)
That is an oversimplification, and I think it's in the original article. Let me try to give an alternative explanation.
In an ideal world where all the studies have the same amount of subjects and all the countries have the same conditions, when you make an histogram of the result of the test you expect to see a Gaussian distribution. Some graphics in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_distribution
If half of the studies have 100 participants and the other half have 10000 participants, you expect to see the sum of two Gaussian distributions with the same center, it looks like a low wide mountain with a bump in the center. In a more realistic universe, each study has a different number of participants, and you get something in between. A rounded symmetrical bump.
Also, in a magical world where there are two type of countries, you will see the sum of two bumps with different centers. If they were far enough, you would see two humps. If they were too close, you will see only one hump but wider than the expected only form noise. And in between you can get weird shapes.
In a realistic word where each country is unique, and they are not so different, you get a bump. With enough variations, some luck, and crossing your fingers, you expect to see a bump that is similar to a Gaussian. It's not exactly a Gaussian, but somewhat close enough. More technical details in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_limit_theorem
So if you have a very big number of studies, you expect to see in the histogram something like a Gaussian. In the first graph, instead of the histogram, the article uses another representation. In an ideal word, you expect to see an inverted ส. See again https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_distribution
In a real word you expect to see something somewhat similar to an inverted ส. But the graphic shows only a L, Where is the top horizontal part of the inverted ส???
It's a very difficult question, and it's difficult to understand without a deep analysis. (That I can't do.) Perhaps there are good reasons, but it's strange.
In particular, the vertical part of the inverted ส in the graphic is close to 0, too close to 0. You can see that the lower tic of the inverted ส goes quite a bit to the right, so the "missing" upper tic should go approximately the same distance to the left. (Or there must be an explanation. Not all distributions are symmetrical, but it's strange that it's so asymmetrical.)
Now, the "missing" experiments in the "missing" upper tic of the inverted ส are the ones that say that the hypothesis is wrong (or even that lead is good for you). So it would be nice to have an explanation of thee weird distribution or the disappearance of these experiments.
Oversimplifying, there are no studies disproving this theory, but from the distribution there should be studies disproving this theory, therefore there is something weird happening here.
(Note: Sometimes the vertical part of the inverted ส is so far away from 0 that you don't expect any result in the negative part. Just the two tics at the top and at the bottom of the inverted ส, both in the positive part.)
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Could you explain what is true? You are talking about a societal wide chemical change in behaviour in all aspects of life.
To start, what % or amount of the reduced crime is due to the lead-crime hypothesis?
Since the lead has brain damaged somewhat equally everyone's impulse control can we see this in TV viewing habits and other everyday behaviour? I'd expect if it can cause us to murder more, it'd also have many everyday effects.
Do you have any conversations around it's effects on other animals also in these environments. How would our pets changed or city animals like birds have changed their behaviour?
Societal wide chemical changes are pretty out there, but they happen, IQs rise as countries become richer through diverse food security but this a limit function, 90% of people get enough iodine so the IQ changes will on be the 10%. Lead-crime hypothesis is ~100% changed.
The Middle East was late to reducing lead. Do the think the we will see more stability there. Do you think lead-crime hypothesis is that important? What is true?
(Replying to PARENT post)
First of all, the lead-crime hypothesis is good news. It is great to realize that small entirely achievable environmental changes can cause such marked improvement in wellbeing in people's lives.
But for some reason it has not been accepted as good news by the mass media. And then you have papers like the one discussed by the article that try to debunk the theory on absolutely ridiculous grounds. (You see there are no studies disproving this theory therefore there must be studies disproving this theory, therefore this theory is wrong. What a bunch of BS!)
So why is the lead crime hypothesis treated so negatively by our elites? Perhaps to avoid another round of massive litigation. Perhaps to prevent people from finding other ways other pollution can affect people's behavior and thus prevent the banning of other substances and other rounds of massive litigation. Or perhaps to preserve an image key in international culture -- the violent city youth.